Curly Maple Cake Stand for Seed + Salt

Melanie designed and made a Curly Maple Cake Stand for the restaurant Seed + Salt. The restaurant wanted a custom feeling of handmade-local goods for their gluten-free bakery. Melanie worked together with the founder to create a gorgeous 12" cake stand that would house their many delicious cookies and sweets. The gluten-free, vegan restaurant is in the Marina neighborhood in San Francisco.

Flower Pin for Karen Kimmel

Just in time for spring time, these handmade pins were made from mahogany hardwood carved into a delicate shape of a flower. You can wear them to add a little color to an everyday outfit. Designed as a set for Karen Kimmel Studios.

photo: Katie Hanburger

California Trees Series

The California Trees Series is based off of Douglas Fir and Redwood trees of Northern California. Each tree is hand lathed from Redwood and Douglas Fir locally sourced lumber. The Redwood set comes with an adorable wooden mini VW Van and the Douglas Fir set comes with a small wooden tent. Each piece is handmade and vary in size and color.

Top photo: Kimberly Genevieve

Bud Vase for Gainey Ceramics

This bud vase is meant to hold either a single flower or help arrange multiple flowers in a fanning direction. It was a collaboration with Gainey Ceramics.

Wishbone Candle

Do wishes come true? These Wishbone Candles give both the user and the giver a chance of making their special wish come true. Through this interaction you are able to share the memory of that special moment. The Candles are handmade and packaged in a branded wooden box.

Painted Baskets for Karen Kimmel

Martini Bar Cart

The Tini Bar is a bar that you are able to experience with
close friends, honoring the classic martini and cocktail era. It
includes six martini glasses, a garnish bowl, olive bowl and a
place for the shaker. There is also two fabric hammocks for
holding the gin and vermouth.

Taking things back to how people would entertain at home
when they would create delicious cocktails, I wanted to bring
that act back into our culture today. Tini Bar was created
to encourage home entertainment and the creation of
relationships on a more intimate surrounding.

Wooden Stands

Walking Table

This concept was based upon the original table, La Jirafa
Caminada. Taking the idea further and animate the
legs. The table imitates the immediacy of a pet where one
would to take it for a “walk”. Therefore the table will become a
walking companion.

Using Theo Jansen’s kenetic Strandebeest sculptures as
the basis of the design.

Bring him everywhere you go and enjoy the company of a
walking table.

photo: Dan Nakamura

La Jirafa Caminada

La Jirafa Caminanda is the whimsical legs of a giraffe daring to move at any moment. This table is made with hand carved walnut and casted bronze. Designed as a small accent table for your living room or bedroom, it is inspired by the Spanish architect Gaudi's imaginative shapes and forms.

Oak Wood Vessels

These wooden bowls are hand-turned in Los Angeles. They are carefully made with hand selected white oak wood from a local lumber yard and finished with a natural orange oil and beeswax. Perfect as a fruit bowl or the ever random catch-it-all bowl. Each bowl is one-of-a-kind and vary in size and color.

Cherry Wood Bowls

These wooden bowls are hand-turned in Los Angeles. They are carefully made with hand selected cherry wood from a local lumber yard and finished with a natural orange oil and beeswax. Perfect as a fruit bowl or the ever random catch-it-all bowl. Each bowl is one-of-a-kind and vary in size and color.

Holiday Ornaments for Brika

Melanie designed an exclusive line of Holiday ornaments for Brika's line of Exclusive Holiday Pieces. Each piece was thoughtfully designed to be grouped together for a cohesive holiday set. Purchase your holiday gear here at Brika.com.

Hand-turned cork holiday trees are designed to brighten up your holiday by adding photos of loved ones or even notes to keep you organized. Each tree is unique and one-of-a-kind, made in Melanie's studio in Oakland, CA.

Hand-turned cork holiday ornaments are designed with traditional ornament shapes, but are kept modern with the fun and sustainable material of cork. A great accessory that is sure to brighten up any tree! Each ornament is unique and one-of-a-kind, made in Melanie's studio in Oakland, CA.

Azulejos Wallpaper

Azulejos are blue tiles from Portugal. It is a cultural icon in Portugal and I wanted to be able to make that particular motif more accessible to the home. I hand-stamped 8 different laser-cut lino pieces to create a gradient of the azulejos. It was supposed to represent an elaborate tile from portugal to the most simple tile.

Ban.do + Splendid

Splendid

Designed an Owl DIY for Splendid's store openings with Crafting Community. They used Splendid's super soft fabrics and Splendid Star's for the eyes.

Succulent Wreath Class

Each Student made a custom 10" succulent wreath for the holiday season. Class of 10. Find out more at www.fullosophie.com!

Nearly Impossible Event

The Nearly Impossible Conference is an event where product companies come together to learn how to build strong brands and grow successful businesses. I was able to be apart of the set up of the event at their San Francisco location at Heath Ceramics. My cork planters were apart of their lifestyle decor in Heath's boiling room.

Melanie Abrantes Designs rents out products, teaches workshops and produces events. She also teaches private classes from 5-10 students for wood carving and spoon carving in her studio in Oakland,CA or remotely at different locations. Please contact her at melanieabrantes@gmail.com if you or your company are interested in any of these services.

Wedding in Malibu

Melanie custom made 30 planters in different sizes and styles (including hand painted copper foil) for decoration for the Dillion's wedding in Malibu, CA. They were beautiful center pieces that helped make the wedding feel one-of-a-kind. Melanie also assisted on the production and decoration of this beautiful wedding.

Create + Cultivate Event

Create + Cultivate is an inspirational conference series that gathers the next generation of female entrepreneurs and business leaders. I was honored to be apart of the decor and production team for the event produced by No Subject LA and Darling Magazine. I did a collaboration with Eileen Lee to create custom pieces, including cork pencil holders, copper foil cork planters, hand painted coasters and hanging macrame planters. We did the set up of each table scape, workshops and final dinner.

Melanie Abrantes Designs rents out products, teaches workshops and produces events. She also teaches private classes from 5-10 students for wood carving and spoon carving in her studio in Oakland,CA or remotely at different locations. Please contact her at melanieabrantes@gmail.com if you or your company are interested in any of these services.

Floral Headpiece Workshop

For Create + Cultivate I taught a floral headpiece workshop to a selection of students. They learned about the different flower types, how to tie them and how to compose their pieces. It was taught at the Ace Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.

Melanie Abrantes Designs rents out products, teaches workshops and produces events. She also teaches private classes from 5-10 students for wood carving and spoon carving in her studio in Oakland,CA or remotely at different locations. Please contact her at melanieabrantes@gmail.com if you or your company are interested in any of these services.

Cork Treasure Pots

Copper Foil Cork Planters

Breast Cancer Awareness Project: See this pink backdrop? I will be donating a percentage of the sales of this product to fund Breast Cancer Awareness Month Oct. 1- Oct. 31, 2014. You can find out more information here: https://fundraise.nbcf.org/fundraise?fcid=353424

Hand-turned cork planter are designed for desert plants such as succulents and cacti. A fun accessory that is sure to brighten any room! Cork is naturally porous making it an ideal material for the plants to live in. Each planter has a shellacked interior and finished on the outside with a natural beeswax. Color and size might vary, the vases are hand painted with copper foil. Each vase is unique and one-of-a-kind, made in my studio in Oakland, CA.

Cork is a 100% sustainable material.Proudly Handmade in the America.

Tall Cork Vase + Pencil Holder

Breast Cancer Awareness Project: See this pink backdrop? I will be donating a percentage of the sales of this product to fund Breast Cancer Awareness Month Oct. 1- Oct. 31, 2014. You can find out more information here: https://fundraise.nbcf.org/fundraise?fcid=353424

Hand-turned cork tall vases are designed to hold a bouquet of flowers or hold your pencils at your desk. A fun accessory that is sure to brighten any room! You can also pin notes or photos because of the unique cork material. The vases are hand painted with white polka dots or copper foil. Each vase is unique and one-of-a-kind, made in my studio in Oakland, CA.

Approximately 6" tall and 3" Wide Cork is a 100% sustainable material.

Splendid Social Media

In 2013 I designed with Karen Kimmel Studios the Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook graphics for Splendid. Here is a small collection of the social graphics I made.